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Contains some strong language.

Sport's Strangest Crimes, Bloodgate, 1. Dandies to Dark Arts

Sport's Strangest Crimes

Bloodgate

1. Dandies to Dark Arts

Up next

March 15, 2025

28 minutes

Available for over a year

Ross Kemp visits the Clapham joke shop at the origin of the Bloodgate cheating scandal that brought rugby union to its knees.

We learn how the advent of professionalism in the 1990s brought a new win-at-all-costs mentality to the sport.

And Harlequins players Tom Williams, Ugo Monye and Nick Easter explain how new coach Dean Richards transformed the club from entertaining also-rans into ruthless winners who began to push the rules to their limits and beyond.

Could a loophole in the laws around blood injuries boost their chances of European silverware?

Narrator: Ross Kemp

Reporter/Interviewer: Chris Jones

Writer/Producer: Sam Sheringham

Story editor: Tom Fuller

Sound design/production: Jesse Howard

Digital Producers: Sam Huxley and Stephen Trenchard

Assistant producers: Metin Yilmaz, Jack Wood, Mujtaba Ali and Victoria Turner

BBC 5 Live Sport podcast editor: Matt Smith

Commissioner: Stevie Middleton